New With Some Questions, Please

[kate7772]

My husband is a Vietnam era Marine Corp. veteran.

He filed for disability for Membranous Glomerulonephritis /Stage 3 kidney disease, depression and tinnitus.

The kidney disease was diagnosed through his private kidney doctor and the tinnitus through VA.

The kidney disease we feel can be linked to the contaminated water at Camp Lejeune.

Everything was across the board, denied. This was filed through a veterans service officer who seemed a bit clueless to the proper way to do it. There was no Nexus letter included.

My husband plans to appeal or whatever we need to do now (just not sure.) He hasn't asked his doctor to give him a letter yet but will do so this week. Trying to get enough supporting evidence together to show the doctor so he will understand but not overwhelm him. My husband has no other factors to cause the kidney disease. I wonder if it would be a good idea to make an appointment with a VA kidney doctor to review his records also. We probably will get an IMO done also.

The tinnitus was VA diagnosed, so not sure why that was denied.

My husband claimed depression because he just knew he was miserable in so many ways but didn't know why. Now, very recently, he has been diagnosed with PTSD with major depression (still amazed that this could happen so many years after the fact but looking back through the years, there were a lot of clues.) When he took the PTSD test, he was told that he was extremely bad. The diagnosis was made by a VA clinical nurse specialist and clinical social worker. Doesn't it need to be diagnosed by a psychologist or psychiatrist? The nurse said it needs to be someone specially trained in PTSD treatment such as the social worker. They want him to do drugs (which he hates) and therapy. Could PTSD now be added as part of the depression he originally claimed or would it need to be an entirely new claim with a new start date?

I appreciate any thoughts you are able to give me on this.

Thanks,

Kate

[kate7772]

Are you saying the VA denied all his claims without any C&Ps?

Wow I don't think that is legal per se but I guess it could happen. Can you tell us what the decision said word for word?

See above post for word for word on kidney disease denial.

[foreveryoung]

I'd get and appointment with a private Psychiatrist, tell him/her about your issues and how you feel they are connected to your service. That's how I started 15 years ago for my PTSD.

I know it's a lot to take in at one time, but you need to move forward.

Good Luck

Edited February 14, 2014 by foreveryoung

[Berta]

Unfortunately, PTSD MUST be diagnosed by a VA MH professional, and the VA will not accept any non VA shrink's diagnosis of PTSD.

Us advocates, many hadit veterans, vet reps and vet lawyers aggressively fought this part of the new 2010 PTSD regs ,via the pubic comments of the Federal Register, and we lost.

“as a medical opinion issued by a specialist at the VA Medical Center in Louisville, KY opined on September 13, 2013 that your kidney condition is less likely as not caused by or as a result of exposure to contaminated water at Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune which we have conceded.”

This lingo sounds like a definite VA C & P exam was done and that is the reason and bases for the denial regarding the kidney disease.

[Navy04]

Berta,

You are right on the money as usual.

[Berta]

Thanks Navy04

We all try to be 'right on the money' here with our advice ,so that we can Move money...from the VA financial coffers into the checking accounts of disabled vets.....

It is unfortunate that it often takes a strong IMO, that could be costly, to get a fair shake from the VA.

This link explains the Renal-HBP connect under the Chronic presumptives regs, that I mentioned above somewhere.

SMRs are critical to most Chronic presumptive claims.

I helped a local vet succeed under the chronic regs....after vet reps ( one was my former vet rep who asked me to help with the claim)and even 2 CAVC lawyers had failed to read his SMRs in detail.

He was so burned out when he got his award ( which was rated too low) that he was happy with the many years of retro he got and did not want to even NOD the decision.

Luckily I had found enough medical info in the SMRs for him to get a solid IMO from his private doctor, at no charge at all.

(that wasnt easy....the first IMO was awful, then the IMO doc got mad at me,but did the second proper IMO, and the veteran himself became Very aggressive with me.

It had taken lots of my time and was a lot of work to square his claim away and I knew,when I read over the SMRs (not easy there either, all handwritten) he would succeed,once the IMO was done right.

Sometimes that happens.Free IMOs.

I got a free ,but very brief opinion via email from a former VA neuro ,years ago and Dr. Bash incorporated the opinion and copy of it,into the IMOs he did for me.He called the Neuro and the Neuro put the opinion onto his formal letterhead for Dr. Bash.

While the opinion did not follow the actual IMO criteria, it coorborated Dr. Bash's opinion and the BVA gave it full weight.

The Neuro had left VA for private practice and with my lay medical background ,I determined the records revealed he was the only VA doctor who knew what he was doing when my husband was being treated by VA for a major stroke.

[kate7772]

Berta.

"This lingo sounds like a definite VA C & P exam was done and that is the reason and bases for the denial regarding the kidney disease."

I'm not totally familiar with C&P's but I assume it actually involves a physical meeting and exam. My husband got nothing like that. He just filed, they waited forever, then sent denial.